Chuck Schumer tells LGBT community to “keep fighting” post-election
Soon-to-be Democratic Senate leader makes overture to LGBT voters disappointed by Trump's victory
“The truth is, I am also depending on you. It’s a terrible fact that there have always been bullies, and there have always been people with hate in their hearts. We will always be stronger.”
–New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, writing in an op-ed for The Advocate addressing the LGBT community. Schumer, who is slated to become Democrats’ leader in the U.S. Senate beginning in January, promised the LGBT community that he would work to prevent any reversals of hard-fought wins under a Trump administration.
“There are many fellow citizens — the LGBT community, immigrants, communities of color, women, our young people, Democrats and progressives of all stripes — who are profoundly worried about what the future holds. And following everything that was said during this campaign by our now president-elect, it is entirely reasonable to be nervous and even angry,” writes Schumer. “I am not sure what will come next after so many fought so hard for so long to gain the right to say ‘love is love’ no matter what. I am worried about what tomorrow holds and what this new administration may attempt to roll back.
“But I write to you today to say I will do all in my power to prevent any backsliding on hard-won rights and to push back against a national discourse that allows for anything less than a full measure of respect for all Americans and would-be Americans.”
Schumer writes that he will not forget the real struggles that the LGBT community has faced and continues to face over the years, invoking the memory of the Stonewall Riots, the Pulse nightclub shooting, the passage of HB 2 in North Carolina, anti-LGBT hate crimes and the murders of transgender Americans. But he also raises the victories that the community has been able to win in spite of the difficulties it has faced, noting that those victories were achieved through hard work and commitment to the cause.
“Keep fighting; keep working; keep pushing for all LGBT Americans, all Muslim Americans, all Americans with disabilities, all Latino Americans, all African-Americans, all white-black-brown working-class Americans struggling to have a fair shot at the American dream,” he says. “And keep in the back of your head the words preached by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.'”
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